Springs are not always the same. In some years, April bursts upon Virginia hills in one prodigious leap – and all the stage is filled at once, whole choruses of tulips, arabesques of forsythia, cadenzas of flowering plum. The trees grow leaves overnight.
In other years, spring tiptoes in. It pauses, overcome by shyness, like my grandchild at the door, peeping in, ducking out of sight, giggling in the hallway. “I know you’re out there,” I cry. “Come in!” And April slips into our arms.
The dogwood bud, pale green, is inlaid with russet markings. Within the perfect cup a score of clustered seeds are nestled. One examines the bud in awe: Where were those seeds a month ago? The apples display their milliner’s scraps of ivory silk, rose-tinged. All the sleeping things wake up – primrose, baby iris, blue phlox. The earth warms – you can smell it, feel it, crumble April in your hands.
山茱萸的花骨朵儿嫩绿嫩绿的,镶着赤褐色的花边。在那漂亮的花萼里,竟稳稳地簇拥着十几颗小种子。我们不禁要惊羡地问一句:一个月前这些种子还在哪儿呢?苹果树则像卖帽人,向人们展示他帽子上那一片片微带点玫瑰红地乳白色丝缎。所有熟睡的都醒了——樱草花、小蝴蝶花、蓝夹竹桃。大地也暖和起来了——你可以闻到四月的气息,感觉到它那股馨香,把它捧在手中赏玩。 Look to the rue anemone, if you will, or the pea patch, or to the stubborn weed that thrusts its shoulders through a city street. This is how it was, is now, and ever shall be, the world without end. In the serene certainty of spring recurring, who can fear the distant fall? 去看看白头翁花,如果你愿意,再去看看豌豆畦,或是那倔强地手臂伸过城市街道的野花。它们从前是这样,现在是这样,将来还会是这样,这是个永不停息的世界。当我们发现,春已切切实实地回来了,在恬静之中,谁还会害怕遥远的秋天呢?